Maki's Mind
by t4bris
Summary: A short story with Maki and Nico.


Some days, Maki would get a feeling like there was a crawling under her skin. She could feel every breath she took, and felt as if a third person observer through her own eyes, who happened to calmy observe her own frenzied thoughts. She would numbly, apathetically watch herself panic. Sometimes this feeling would come at convenient times, sometimes inconvenient ones. Sometimes it came when she was at home, nobody around, and others it came in the middle of class, where she had to contend with person upon person. Today, she thought it was one of the good times. She thought nobody was home. But then, she noticed Nico had casually been standing at her doorway, her backpack on, as if she'd been walking home but somehow ended up at Maki's.  
"Hey, I'm behind on homework. You're smart, help me out wi-hey!"  
She couldn't finish that statement before Maki had grasped her arm, and started practically dragging her to whatever destination she wanted to go.  
"Geez, you don't have to get so pissed about it, you can just say no."  
Nico was trying to talk to her, but Maki wasn't in the state of mind to have a conversation with anyone. She usually could go an entire day acting normal, as if nothing was wrong. But for some reason, now was different. She had a need. And to that end, she had taken Nico to a secret room in her sizable home.  
The floor was concrete, and it was lit dimly by a single, unfurnished light bulb that swayed after Maki slammed the door shut. It wasn't very large, but it had enough room for 2 people to stand in without feeling too close to each other. The most prominent feature of the room was a punching bag, hanging by a chain from the ceiling in the direct middle of the room. Directly below it was an almost entirely red jumpsuit, the only part not covered in red being the chest area, which had a white marking, similar to a crescent moon on it's side. On the direct opposite side of the room, a well worn cardboard box held up a cassette player, and an entirely white set of boxing gloves.  
"...What is this? Why are you showing me this?"  
Maki herself didn't know why. Maybe she didn't want to have to make up an excuse to Nico. Maybe she just wanted someone else to know. But she did know what to do next. She started by stripping herself.  
"Listen, I'm not doing anything like that just to get my homework done, I'll just get someone else!"  
But in Nico's mind, she was already too curious exactly what was going on here, so she decided to stay as long as she could. She had told Maki she wasn't doing any sexual favors, but having seen the jumpsuit below the punching bag, she had suspected something weirder was going on.  
Maki put on the red suit without missing a beat, and pressed the play button on the cassette player, starting some song that was somehow rap, smooth jazz, and rock at the same time. She finally put on her boxing gloves and began stomping around the room, Nico watching in complete confusion. After about a minute of just stomping around, Maki had begun shadowboxing in front of the punching bag, and took about half of another minute to punch it. And when she did, she moved back a bit, and started the process of stomping around again, Nico watching the entire ordeal with a simple look of befuddlement covering her face. Maki went through this routine about 3 times, during which Nico had noticed the song had to have looped at least once.  
Maki came up to Nico, and motioned her in an exaggerated manner to move aside. Nico obliged, as Maki walked through the door Nico had forgotten was even there in her trance of bewilderment. Nico didn't particularly know what else to do, she simply followed Maki wherever she went.  
Their next destination was the kitchen, where Maki opened the fridge, where Nico would see contained a disproportionate amount of grapes, a bundle of which Maki snatched and began scarfing down.  
"Maki, what is this? What's going on?"  
But Nico wouldn't get an answer, or even any form of acknowledgement. All Nico could think to do was follow her back to the room with the cassette player, and watch as she began her odd ritual again. After what had to have been about have been half an hour, Maki took a large sigh, and stopped the music. She started stripping again, and put back on her regular clothes. The urge was gone. She could think clearly again.  
"Sorry, Nico, you needed me to help with your homework, right?"  
"Yeah."


End file.
